SAMURAI SPY: CRITERION COLLECTION

The Charge

Opening Statement

[Editor's Note: This review is part of a full examination of Criterion's
Rebel Samurai: Sixties Swordplay Classics boxed set.]

Facts of the Case

The year is 1614. Tensions have again flared up between Ieyasu Tokugawa and
the rival he defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara, Hideyori Toyotomi. Samurai
loyal to Toyotomi have been joined by ronin displaced by the Tokugawa victory in
the great battle, and spies from both sides roam the land gathering
intelligence. Caught in the middle is the Sanada clan, who refuse to declare
loyalty to either the Shogun or his rival. They have a network of their own
spies, led by Sasuke Sarutobi (Koji Takahashi, Ghost in the Shell: Stand
Alone Complex).

Sasuke learns from a Toyotomi spy named Mitsuaki -- with whom he has a
cautiously friendly relationship -- that one of Tokugawa's top spies, Tatewaki
Koriyama, is planning to defect. Mitsuaki is the double-agent's contact with the
Toyotomis, and stands to gain much money and prestige if he can safely deliver
the traitor to his superiors. But when Mitsuaki is murdered, the Toyotomis blame
Sasuke and demand he deliver Tatewaki. The Sanada clan's chief spy is also being
tracked by Tokugawa's formidable lieutenant, Sakon Takatani (Tetsuro Tamba,
You Only Live Twice), who wants to ensure his former colleague doesn't
successfully defect to the enemy camp. In the process of navigating this
dangerous territory between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi clans, Sasuke discovers a
secret about a young Christian captured and tortured by the Toyotomis that
reveals startling information about Tatewaki's past.

The Evidence

Samurai Spy is a lesser work by director Masahiro Shinoda, but an
entertaining chambara nonetheless. Shinoda was a prime mover in the
Japanese New Wave, making often bleak little pictures in which characters choose
love over custom and suffer annihilation as a consequence. There's no better
example of Shinoda's personal aesthetic and thematic fixations than, Double
Suicide, his heavily stylized live-action adaptation of a Bunraku
puppet play. Those hoping Samurai Spy delivers a similarly self-conscious
and arty experience will be sorely disappointed. It is stylish, though. Not only
is the picture's plot a labyrinth of intrigue, but it offers acrobatic ninja
action, and a swinging '60s score by Toru Takemitsu (Ran). Its
outlandishness is entirely appropriate to a story about the legendary Sasuke
Sarutobi. The spy is a highly-skilled ninja who may or may not have been an
actual historical figure, but has become a legend in Japan based on his many
appearances in simple, action-packed tales designed mostly for consumption by
children.

Shinoda's movie is breezy and entertaining, but not specifically designed
for kids. The plot is a tangle of political maneuvering bound to lose anyone who
doesn't have at least a modicum of knowledge about the political landscape of
early 17th-century Japan. The good news, though, is that one need not pay close
attention to the many turns of plot to have a good time. It's enough to know
that loyalties among all the characters are in continual flux, and
everyone has an ulterior motive. Through this complexity the film earns
its place in the Rebel Samurai box, as well as Shinoda's oeuvre: The
romance of feudal Japan's honor and duty is exposed as a sham in the director's
tale of subterfuge, deceit, and murderous self-interest.

Samurai Spy opens on the gloriously epic scene of the Battle of
Sekigahara as the picture's political landscape is established in voice-over
narration. The scene is staged and shot impressively, samurai clashing on foot
and horseback in the foreground and stretching all the way to distant hills on
the horizon. Though the rest of the film is more intimate, focusing our
attention on the adventures of a relatively small group of characters, it never
quite gets intimate enough. This is likely attributable to Sasuke's legendary
status: As in movies about Robin Hood or the Lone Ranger here in the West,
Sasuke's acts of derring-do play out with little revelation of our hero as
anything but an archetype. That doesn't prevent the movie from entertaining, but
it does relegate it to the status of a straight genre piece, and a bit of a
disappointment in light of the personal idiosyncrasies that define Shinoda's
best work.

Samurai Spy is available on DVD from The Criterion Collection (spine
number 312) both as a stand-alone disc and as part of the four-disc Rebel
Samurai: Sixties Swordplay Classics boxed set. According to Criterion's
liner notes, the disc's 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer comes directly
from a 35mm fine-grain master, digitally remastered. It's a nearly flawless
transfer. Shot in black-and-white, the picture is beautifully detailed. The
transfer offers a rich and natural range of grays, as well as solid blacks and
pure whites. Criterion's restoration work has left almost no evidence of damage
or other source flaws. Audio has also been restored, and is a simple but clean
center-speaker presentation of the original mono track. The punchy score sounds
great, with only isolated instances of distortion from the source.

The feature is accompanied by a decent array of extras considering the
movie's quality. A video interview with Shinoda -- shot in 2005, exclusively for
Criterion -- runs 16 minutes, is indexed into six chapters, and covers not only
information specific to the film, but to the filmmaker's style in general. A
character gallery, includes biographical information for 11 of the film's
characters and is helpful in making sense of the convoluted plot. The fold-out
insert booklet contains a lengthy essay by Alain Silver, author of Samurai
Film, that covers not only Samurai Spy, but also the general cultural
landscape of the Japanese film industry in the '60s, and the central role
directors like Shinoda, Hideo Gosha (Sword of the Beast), and Kihachi
Okamoto (Kill!) played in reinventing genre films in order to maintain
their relevance in Japan's postwar society.

Closing Statement

Samurai Spy isn't a great movie, but it'll entertain fans of Japanese
period films, and maybe that's enough. Don't let its convoluted plot confuse
you; just sit back and enjoy the adventure.